Summary

The article discusses the public's reaction to the uncensored version of Will Smith's slap at the Oscars and questions the relevance of traditional media censorship in the age of social media.

Abstract

In the wake of Will Smith's slap at the Academy Awards, the public has shown a clear preference for uncensored content, seeking out the raw footage of the incident despite the efforts of traditional media to censor it. The article argues that the proliferation of uncensored content on platforms like TikTok, which has a significant young user base, undermines the effectiveness of organizations like the FCC and the PTMC in protecting youth from explicit material. It suggests that the focus should shift from censorship to education, teaching children about appropriate language use and the importance of respect, while acknowledging that there are more pressing dangers online, such as grooming and catfishing.

Opinions

The author believes that the public, including adults, prefers to access uncensored versions of events, as evidenced by the popularity of the uncensored video of Will Smith's slap.
The article posits that traditional media's censorship efforts are becoming obsolete in the face of social media platforms that offer uncensored content.
It is suggested that parents are in denial about their children's exposure to and use of profanity.
The author argues that the true role of parenting should be to educate children on language appropriateness rather than shield them from hearing bad language.
The piece implies that the focus on language censorship is misguided when compared to the need to protect children from serious online threats like predators.
The author indicates that the debate around the Will Smith incident has overshadowed more significant current issues, such as the Russia-Ukraine war.

A Different Take on The Will Smith Slap

Did Chris Rock Deserve It or Not? That’s Not What I Want to Talk About

It’s only been less than a week.

Hundreds of articles and discussion points have been made about Will Smith’s slap. Predominantly, the questions are “do you agree with him or not? Was he in the right or not?” Or, “Was it even real or staged?”

When the Academy Awards broadcast aired over live television, the interaction censored Will Smith’s true words.

The trending video that many have seen is the uncensored version. Because, who wants to hear tired old bleeps? We can read Will Smith’s lips. We can make a fairly certain guess at what he was saying to Chris Rock.

But who wants that?

We wanted to see it raw. We wanted to hear it raw.

We wanted to feel it raw, so that we could judge it raw.

This piece is not about judging Will Smith’s actions, nor is it about Chris Rock’s weak joke that triggered the whole debacle. The internet is already a firestorm of debates covering race, class, gender, chivalry, entitlement, publicity, reality versus entertainment, and of course, in comparison with more hard-hitting current issues such as the Russia-Ukraine war.

The topic I haven’t seen covered much, or at all, is that of censorship.

When I first heard of the event, I, like many others, thought it was a staged stunt. Once we all realized it wasn’t, we all raced to find footage of the actual event.

Once we realized there was a live exchange between the two men that was laced with expletives, we hunted down that version. I know I did.

Based on the number of views of the attached video above, the preferred version is the unfiltered one.

The feeds from other countries such as Australia and Japan were not censored. They were out of the reach of the long arms of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC).

I saw TikTok versions of the same explicit moment. According to Comscore (March 2022), The percentage of U.S.-based TikTok users by age:

10–19 — 32.5%
20–29 — 29.5%
30–39 — 16.4%
40–49 — 13.9%
50+ — 7.1%

The largest user base of TikTok is between 10 and 19 yrs old. Many TikTok users sign themselves up on the app without parental approval or supervision.

If the goal of the FCC and the PTMC is to protect young minds and create family-friendly content, they’re failing to realize that there’s a ton of content being mass-produced by the minute on TikTok that is already uncensored, effectively bypassing their restrictions on good old mainstream media.

If TikTok and social media can boast more daily active users, can traditional media (television and radio) still hold on to the mantle of being “mainstream?”

Parents can control what kids can install on their phones via parental control features. Yes, they can outright control their kids simply having phones and other devices in the first place.

But they can’t helicopter over their kids 100% of the time as they look over their friends’ shoulders and view TikToks together.

So what’s the point of all the TV censorship? We don’t care for it. We want to see it raw. The adults want to see it raw.

The kids certainly have ways to see it raw too.

As parents, we’re in denial if we think our kids have never heard bad language. Maybe even more so if we think our kids don’t practice throwing in a few choice four-letter words here and there we’re not around.

Our growing kids are not the saints they used to be. They’re growing up. There are more important and dangerous things to shelter and protect them from, like online groomers and catfishers.

Our job as parents is to educate the kids about what language is correct, appropriate and respectful to use. It’s okay to hear bad language.

It’s really not that f******* bad.